Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-01-05
ENRICHED 81 ACCIDENT.
An Interesting Tale of Black Friday Told
by q Stock Exchange Broker

Z. 1STalu.f -..s4.fs.
''Perhaps the most remarkable cnse that
ever came nnder my observation, said an
old Stock Exchange broker the other day,
"was that OF one of the most conservative
OF men now on the street. He is now SIM
ply broker, and since Black Friday has
never speculRted one dollars worth. You
remember that three or four men Drought
on the panic now known as Black Friday
by cornering gold and running the price up
till many operators were ruined, the street
was in a wild panic and universal smash
seemed imminent These men relied
on what they believed to be good
assurance that the Government would put
no gold on the market that day, and they
had locked up pretty much all the rest of
the gold in the country that was availabfe.
Right in the midst of the panic, when the
street was like mad-house, and many
men who in the morning supposed them
selves rich were almost stark, staring
mad over the ruin which had befallen
them in a few hours, and when almost the
highest figures had been touched and no
body was selling short, this broker to
whom refer Suddenly lost his head. He
had covered early in the morning at a
comparatively small loss, and had been
looking ON during the day without any
personal anxiety except that caused by
bottom out of every thing.
suddenly, he never knew why, nor has
he any but the most Vague recollection Of
the transaction; he rushed into the brawl-
ing, bowling pit and sold right and left at
the highest figures. He probably might have
avoided his contracts, or his friends have
invalidated them for him, as he was un-
doubtedly insane when he did this. At all
events, he was still selling when suddenly
there came that little message from Sec
retary Boutwell, that knocked the bottom
out of the corner in the twinlsling OF an
eye; Sell five millions of gold,'
In half an hour more my friend would
have been a lunatic pauper, and as
IL was, his brother, l think, or some
near relative, found him utterly irrespon-
sible, and with good deal of difficulty led
him away to his office. There, whom he
was told of the order of Boutwell,, and that
the bottom had dropped out of the panic,
he did not sccm 10 comprehend the truth
at ali, but mumbled something which no
body understood. His contracts, however,
were found and taken care of by his
clerks, and a rapid estimate showed that
he stood TO the good not far from quarter
of million. When they told him he did
not seem to comprehend He had not been
drinking, for he was a teetotaler. ,
suddenly they missed him. They could
not find him in the street, nor in the. gold
room, nor at any of the other brokers'
ofdces he was accustomed 10 visit. Nobody
had seen him. He had not gone to his
home, and his family, at midnight, becom-
ing thoroughly alarmed, notified
the police that h. was missing
and temporarily deranged. He was
found wandering up Broadway
long past midnight, mutteringhis calls and
recognizing no one. Nor did he know any
one for nearly two weeks. He was on the
verge of paralysis Of the brain and barely
pulled through. When, after two weeks
illness, he awolc one morning rational,
his first thought was that he was on
'Change. He remembered nothing of his
operations, but recalled very vividly sc
much of the panic as he had witnessed be.
fore he began TO operate himself 1t was
long time before his physician permitted
him 10 be told that he had by his crazy
freak made fortune. He has kept 1t, too,
for from that day to this, as l said, he has
never bought stock except for invest
ment.O